Tata Motors, the largest commercial vehicle maker in the country, is developing an entirely new range of buses along with partner Marcopolo that will cater to both inter and intra-city transport.
The company already has Tata Globus Coach and Tata Starbus range with Marcopolo.
“The bus range will be different from the existing small seaters such as the City Ride. The range will comprise 5-57-seaters. The company will focus aggressively on school buses, contract carriers and state transport air-conditioned, low-floor buses,” said a source familiar with the development.
No other commercial vehicle manufacturer in India has the full range of buses.
Eicher, to an extent, has a mixed range but nothing in the small bus category.
Tata Motors is likely to display some of its wares from the new range at the upcoming auto expo in New Delhi in January.
Mahantesh Sabarad, analyst, Centrum Broking said Tata Motors has a known ambition of being the largest bus player and that was made known through the Globus and Starbus range.
“The tie-up with Marcopolo and the acquisition of Hispano give Tata Motors the edge to drive in a larger portfolio; it also helps it to be in the micro-bus segment, which is a level above the Ace Magic,” Sabarad said.
Swedish giant Volvo is the market leader in the luxury bus segment (16 tonnes and above).
If Tata Motors has to gain spoils in this space, it will have to compete on price and sell at a discount, said analysts.
The 12 to 16.2 tonnes vehicles category saw a decline in sales between April and November.
In all, the segment sold 17,338 vehicles compared with 18,515 in the comparable previous period.
But sales at Tata Motors grew 16% from 7,502 previously to 8,695 commercial vehicles in the same periodfor the same period. Besides, the bus segment, Tata Motors has a stronghold over light commercial vehicle category with its Ace.
The source said Tata Motors is also launching two smaller commercial vehicles — the Penguin, which is a 0.5 tonne carrier, and Pelican, built on the Ace platform, also falling in the 0.5 tonne category. They will cost around Rs 1.5 lakh.
The products will be present in both cargo and passenger carrier category.
Tata Motors refused to comment on these developments.
The segment in which Ace operates is getting saturated with competition also launching products.
Rival Mahindra & Mahindra recently launched the GiO, while Italian major Piaggio will be launching its sub-1 tonne vehicle by the end of this month.
The light passenger and goods carrier segment witnessed a growth of 27.39% between April and November, with sales rising to 171,604 vehicles from 134,705 vehicles previously.
“In the passenger carrier segment, Tata Motors will be the only player offering a 0.5 tonne four-wheeler, which could eat into the market of three-wheeler passenger carriers, where Bajaj and TVS operate,” said an analyst with a foreign brokerage, not wanting to be named. “Just the way Ace took away a large chunk of the goods carrier market, Pelican could do the same, provided the permit issues is taken care of,” he said.
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